Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Monday that the yen's strength is at an "abnormal level" and indicated it could force the automaker to shift operations overseas.
"There is no way we can justify new projects in Japan," given the yen's historically high levels against the dollar, Ghosn said at a press conference in Yokohama, noting the automaker could carry out the same projects much more efficiently outside Japan.
"Japan lost all its competitiveness," he added.
The dollar hit a fresh postwar low of ¥75.78 in New York on Friday and remained weak in Tokyo on Monday.
In relation to the flooding in Thailand that prompted it to suspend production, he said Nissan is still assessing the situation of its suppliers.
At the same press conference, Nissan announced a six-year environmental plan to sell 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles across the Renault-Nissan alliance and improve the fuel economy of vehicles sold in Japan, China, Europe and the United States by 35 percent compared with the 2005 corporate average.
Under the Nissan Green Program 2016, the automaker will spend 70 percent of its annual research and advanced engineering budget on environmentally friendly technologies, which is expected to exceed ¥300 billion, it said.